Let's all stand together. We'll
sing hymn number 352 from your hardbacked hymnal. 352, let's
stand. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. ? While the nearer waters roll
? ? While the tempest still is high ? ? Hide me, O my Savior,
hide ? ? Till the storm of life is past ? ? Safe into the haven
guide ? ? O receive my soul at last ? Other refuge have I none,
hangs my helpless soul on thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed,
all my help from thee I bring. ? Cover my defenseless head ?
? With the shadow of thy wing ? ? Thou, O Christ, art all I
want ? ? More than all in thee I find ? ? Raise the fallen,
cheer the faint ? ? Heal the sick and lead the blind ? Just
and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am. Thou art full of truth and grace. ? Plenteous grace with thee is
found ? ? Grace to cover all my sin ? ? Let the healing streams
abound ? ? Make and keep me pure within ? ? Thou of life the fountain
art ? ? Freely let me take of thee ? ? Spring thou up within
my heart ? ? Rise to all eternity ? Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles together
to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. I've titled this message, Be
Ye Holy. Be Ye Holy. What does that mean? It's a clear command of God. I want to understand it. And
I pray the Lord will give to us that understanding and that
hope this morning. Be ye holy. First Timothy chapter 1 verse
14 says as obedient children not fashioning yourselves according
to the former lust in your ignorance before you knew God. or you had
any understanding of the gospel. All you had was the understanding
of the world and of your own mind and your own flesh. So what
the Lord's saying is now that you are no longer ignorant to
the things of God. Verse 15, but as he which hath
called you is holy, So be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Now the word conversation there
is not just talking about the dialogue of our conversation,
it's our conduct, it's our behavior, it's our manner of life, everything
there is about you. is referred to here as conversation. But as he which hath called you
is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation. Because now the Lord's going
to refer back to an Old Testament text to tell us why these things
are true. because as it is written, be holy for I am holy. Well, the first thought we ought
to have is where exactly is that written and what is meant in
that context? And if you'll turn with me to
Leviticus chapter 11, I'll show you where Peter is referring
to the Old Testament scriptures to support his words. In Leviticus chapter 11, God
gives to the children of Israel very strict and very severe dietary
laws. That's the context, dietary laws. Tells them exactly which animals
they can eat and which animals they can't eat. Tells them exactly
which things out of the water, whether it be a lake or a river
or the ocean, that can be eaten and which things are not to be
eaten. Tells them exactly which birds which fowls are clean and
which are unclean. And then he concludes with perhaps
the one dietary law that's still in force for me today is verse 43. He says that, and
you shall not make yourselves abominable. Over and over again
it says if you don't adhere to these strict laws, you are an
abomination to God. And if you touch anything that's
unclean, you become unclean and unacceptable to God. And if you
don't go through the rituals of being made clean, you cannot
approach God in worship. So these dietary laws were very,
very severe. And the consequences of them
were very severe as well. So he says, don't make yourselves
an abominable with any creeping thing that creepeth neither shall
you make yourselves unclean with them that you should be defiled
thereby. For I am the Lord your God, and
you shall therefore sanctify yourself, and you shall be holy,
for I am holy, neither shall you defile yourself with any
manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." Snails
and worms and insects and birds, bugs, God says don't eat them. There are certain things that
are clean, certain things that are unclean to the Israelites
that they were forbidden to eat. Though the law is given very
clearly here in Leviticus chapter 11 and also repeated in Deuteronomy
chapter 14, We know that God had revealed
these things before that. Moses is the one that wrote Leviticus
and Deuteronomy, but Noah, who lived at least 500 years before
Moses, knew that there were clean and unclean animals. When Jacob, many years before
Moses, took his sons down to Egypt, The scripture says that
the Israelites were an abomination to the Egyptians and the Egyptians
to the Israelites because of the things that they ate and
so we know that even before this law was given to Moses it was
given to the patriarchs as far as the things that were clean
and unclean in the sight of God. The Jews were very zealous to
keep these laws. Now understand what this means
now about being holy. We need to understand the context
of where the Lord tells the children of Israel be holy. Paul in Galatians chapter 1,
in recounting his life as a Jew before the Lord was pleased to
save him, said that he was exceedingly zealous for all the traditions
of the fathers. The Jews had taken these dietary
laws, for instance, the animals that could be eaten versus the
ones that could not be eaten. If an animal had a cloven hoof,
and if it chewed the cud, then it was clean. And if it didn't
have either one of those, then it was unclean. So, for instance, a sheep would
chew the cud and have a cloven hoof, but a pig would have a
cloven hoof but wouldn't chew the cud. And so the Jews became
so zealous for these dietary laws. And it stands to reason
because, you know, someone says, well, diets are hard to keep.
Well, the Lord didn't restrict how much of anything they could
eat. He just restricted what they could eat. And so these
laws would have been the easiest laws of all the Old Testament
laws to keep. You just eat these certain things
and don't eat other certain things, then you can keep the law. And
they were extremely zealous for these things. You remember in
Acts chapter 10 when the Lord called Peter to go to preach
the gospel to that Gentile by the name of Cornelius and Peter
found himself in Joppa and God gave him a vision. of animals
that were brought down from heaven on a sheet. And the Lord spoke
to Peter in this vision and said, Peter, kill and eat. And what did Peter say? Now this
was long after the ascension of the Lord Jesus. So the Jews
are still maintaining these dietary laws because what Peter say,
not so Lord, not so Lord. For I've never eaten anything
that was unclean. I've been faithful to these laws. You said they were abomination
and that I was to maintain my holiness and I've not ever eaten
a single thing in my whole Jewish life that didn't fit into the
unclean category, to the clean category of the dietary laws. He said, I've never eaten anything
common or unclean. And this vision happened three
times. Three times. The Lord says the
same thing and Peter's response is the same thing. What does
the Lord say in response to Peter? Three times. Do not call that
which I have made clean, unclean. And when Peter got to Cornelius'
house and preached the gospel to this Gentile, Peter begins
by saying to Cornelius, you know that it's forbidden by the law
for the Jews to eat with the Gentiles, but God has revealed
to me that you are no longer unclean, that he's made you clean.
So these dietary laws had a purpose in the Jewish life. I mean, Jews
even today, they've expanded the dietary laws that are in
Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 to preparation, to how it's
to be served and how it's to be eaten, what do they call it?
Kosher. Everything has to be kosher in the Jewish family,
in Jewish community. What are they doing? They're
trying to establish a righteousness with God by being obedient to
these very simple, clear, defined dietary laws. Is that what God
meant when he said, be therefore holy even as I am holy? Turn with me to Colossians. We've
been looking at Colossians the last few months. Turn with me
to Colossians chapter 2. There are many passages we could
turn to that support this truth, but we'll
limit our scope to this one passage. Colossians chapter 2, look at
verse 16. You remember when we looked at
these verses that we considered the Judaizers. You remember who
the Judaizers were? They were Jews that were proud
of the fact that they were maintaining their their faithfulness to these
Old Testament types and shadows, and they would come in behind
the Apostle Paul after Paul preached the gospel to these Gentile churches
and say to the Gentiles, yes, the Jesus that Paul preached
to you is the Christ, he's the long-awaited Messiah, and you
must believe upon him in order to be saved, but Paul left something
out. You gotta keep the old dietary
laws. and the old ceremonial laws of the Old Testament in
order to be saved. And so Paul now is writing back
to the church at Colossae and he says in verse 16, let no man
therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of a holy
day or of the new moon or Sabbath days which are a shadow of the
things to come but the body is of Christ. So these dietary laws
that God gave to Israel in the Old Testament were shadows of
things that were to come. The body, the fulfillment of
that shadow, the substance of that shadow is Christ. The person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. So, no. These dietary laws are no longer
in force. Christ Jesus the Lord is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it. He came not to destroy the law,
but to fulfill it. These things were shadows and
types pointing to the Holy One, the Holy One of Israel, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Skip down with me down to verse
20. Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ, when did we die
with Christ? If we believe the law upon the
Lord Jesus Christ, when he died on Calvary's cross, when he cried,
it is finished. All those for whom he died, died
in him. We are looking to the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ for our death to these laws. Wherefore, if you be dead with
Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living
in the world, are you subject to ordinances? Paul is writing
to these Gentiles, saying to them, don't listen to those Judaizers. They're telling you what to touch
and what not to touch and what to eat and what not to eat and
what to handle and what not to handle. And they're referring
back to that Old Testament dietary commandment that God gave to
Israel. And they're telling you that you have to keep that in
order to be holy. which are to perish, look at
verse 22, which are to perish with the using after the commandments
and doctrines of men. What they're telling you is nothing
but a doctrine of man because Christ has fulfilled that law. Which things have indeed a show
of wisdom Oh, the people that practice these things, whether they change their dress
or they change their behavior or they change their, oh, they
have a great show of wisdom. They appear to be outwardly so
religious, so faithful, so committed. They have a show of wisdom in
will worship, that's all they're doing. All they're doing is worshiping
their own will and humility. Such a false, fake humility that
they're presenting. What are they trying to impress
men about how spiritual they are? They neglect the body. They say,
oh no, we can't eat that. But what they're doing is not
in any honor to satisfying the flesh. Their sinful fleshly passions
and behavior are just as real and just as present in their
hearts as they're whitewashing the tomb,
but the inside is full of dead men's bones. This is not what
I mean by being holy. I'm not saying clean the outside
of the cup and leave the inside full of corruption. That's not
what I'm saying by being holy. That's what they've done. They've
taken these Old Testament simple, clear, easy to obey commandments
and using them to impress men with how spiritual they are.
But their hearts are still filled with corruption. They haven't
come to understand anything about the holiness of God. They are
presenting themselves as being holy. And they're not. So when Peter says, be ye holy
in all manner of conversation, What is the Lord saying to you
and me in light of these dietary laws? In Matthew chapter 15 verse
11, the Lord speaking to the Pharisees said, it is not what
goes into the mouth of a man that defiles him, it's what comes
out of his mouth that defiles him. And he goes on in that passage
to say a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit and a bad tree
cannot bring forth good fruit. He's talking about what do we
declare to believe about the Lord Jesus Christ? What do we
speak about Christ? Because in that same passage,
he said, he said the son of David, the Christ, the Christ, whose
son is he? What say ye about Christ? Who
is he and what has he done? Because what you say about the
Lord Jesus Christ, is what the fruit of your lips is, and that's
the fruit of the tree. And so don't worry about what
you eat, because it's not what goes into a man's mouth that
defiles him. It's what comes out of his mouth
that defiles him. The disciples, after the Lord
said that, came to the Lord and said, Lord, the Pharisees were
offended. The Pharisees were offended by
what you said. Why? You've just stripped them
of all their holiness. You've stripped them of their
righteousness. You've taken away from them their
pretense of being religious and spiritual and holy by the way
they're eating and living and acting among men. You've robbed
them of their righteousness. And the Lord said, They're blind
guides leading the blind. Let them all fall into the ditch.
Leave them alone. Leave them alone. Men want to
go down that road in order to try to establish a righteousness
before God? Leave them alone. So we see that these dietary
laws or a foreshadowing of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they
are not in their requirements held as an obligation for us
today, why were they given? Why were they given? Someone
has said, well, you know, each one of them is a type of the
gospel, and I'm sure there are some types. I can see the cloven
hoof and the chewing of the cud as a type of the gospel. I'm
having a little trouble understanding anything that comes out of the
water has to have scales and fins, and certain birds are clean
and certain are unclean. And someone said, well, you know,
each one of these... And I'm sure that there are types
in there, but I'm a little cautious and hesitant to try to draw too
many pictures out of that. And someone else says, well,
they were given for health reasons. And you can look at some of the
animals and see that the birds, for instance, that ate dead things,
were considered unclean and the birds like doves and those that
ate grain were considered clean and so you can see where that
would be or the preparation of pork for instance, you can see
where the, perhaps there was something to that but there are
lots of other animals that are unclean that don't pose any danger
so that's not really the reason
why God gave it. He didn't give this dietary commandment
in order to just protect the health of the Israelites. Go back with me to Leviticus
chapter 11. Verse 44, for I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore sanctify
yourself. That's the word holy. The word
holy means to be set apart. The sanctuary, the tabernacle
was called a sanctuary because it was set apart for the worship
of God. The utensils that the priest
used in a daily activity of worship were called holy because they
were set apart for that use. The priest was called holy because
he was set apart, he was sanctified. So this matter of being holy,
as I am holy, has something to do with being set apart. For I am the Lord your God, verse
44, you shall therefore sanctify yourself and you shall be holy
for I am holy. Neither shall you defile yourself
with any manner of creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
For I am the Lord that bringeth you up out of the land of Egypt
to be your God. You shall therefore be holy for
I am holy. What is a more common activity
that we engage in every day than eating? And so three or two or four times
a day, you sit down to eat something and you're reminded, if you were
an Old Testament Jew, every time you sat down, you looked at that
food And you weighed whether or not it was clean or unclean. And you were reminded by that
food that was put before you, what God had done for you in
making you, as a Jew, to differ from the Egyptians. God made a difference between
the Israelites and the Egyptians. A child of God, whom maketh thee
to differ? What do you have that you did
not receive? And if you received it, why would
we ever boast as if we did something to earn it? Here's the here's the matter
in all manner of conversation. We are reminded. We are reminded
every day what the Lord has done to separate us. You see, being holy in all manner
of conversation is the result of being made holy in Christ. That's why the Lord gave the
Jews these dietary laws, to remind them every day constantly what
God had done to separate them from the world, a constant reminder
that God had chosen them out from the world. We don't look
at someone who is enslaved in some bad behavior and say in
our hearts, but for the grace of God, there go I. We don't
do that. That's no different from the
Pharisee who looked down his self-righteous nose at the publican
and said, Father, I thank thee that I'm not like other men,
especially that publican over there. I'm not like that. Why don't we do that? Because
to whom much is given, much is required. And every child of
God, every child of God believes themselves to be blessed with
more light and more truth and more understanding and more grace
and more mercy. Who do you know that's been given
more than you've been given and remains as unbelieving as you
are? And so, the result of that is
that I am, and if you're a child of God, you are, in your own
heart and mind, the chief of all sinners. We don't do that. We don't look down our nose at
others and think, well, but for the grace of God, there go I.
However, however, A person who does not
know God, regardless of how they live, regardless of how outwardly
moral or immoral they may be. A person who's not been separated
by the grace of God. A person who's not had the Lord
Jesus Christ revealed to them. A person who's not been made
to see themselves as a sinner in need of a savior. person who's worshiping a false
god, we can say, but for the grace of God, there go I. God
made me to differ. And I would be engaged in the
most godless form of religion that anyone else is engaged in
but for the grace of God. The Lord didn't make me to differ,
if he didn't set me apart, if he didn't make me holy, if he
didn't sanctify me. Being made holy in the Lord Jesus
Christ is an absolute. It's an absolute. We do not believe in progressive
sanctification. We do not believe that we are
becoming more holy and less sinful. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Hebrews chapter nine. The more we see of Christ, the
more we grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ, Oh, the more of our own sinfulness we see, the more dependent
we become on Christ for our sanctification before God, our holiness before
God. Hebrews chapter 9. Look with
me at verse 10. But Christ. I'm sorry, verse
10, which stood only in meats and drinks and divers washings
and carnal ordinances imposed on them until the time of Reformation. Now we refer back to that religious
movement that happened 500 years ago as the Protestant Reformation. and much could be said about
the vanity of trying to reform error. I don't know what all
went on back then and I'm not here to criticize that. But God
uses this word reformation not in reference to some sort of
religious revival that may have happened. He's using it to describe
that which has been reformed It was this way, it was a shadow,
but now Christ is the substance. These dietary laws have been
reformed. But Christ, verse 11, being come
a high priest of good things to come by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not those Old Testament tabernacles built
with the hands of men, Not made with hands, that is to say, of
this building, neither by the blood of bulls and goats, but
by his own blood he entered in once to the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. Look over in chapter 10 at
verse 10, verse 9. Then said he, this is the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. This is the reformation, the
reforming of these Old Testament laws into the perfection of the
Lord Jesus Christ. By the which will, We are sanctified,
made holy, perfect. The Bible says in Habakkuk that
God's eyes are too pure to look upon sin. God could not have
anything to do with us unless he imputed to us, put us in Christ
and charged to our account the righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ and counted us to be holy for Christ's sake. This is what
he's talking about. By the which will we are sanctified. When are we sanctified? Through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. So when
the Lord Jesus Christ bore in his body the sins of God's people,
he put them away by the sacrifice of himself. and he sanctified
them once and for all, made them holy. Is this what our text means? Is this what it means when God
says be holy for I am holy? No. But it is essential that we understand
the absolute of sanctification and holiness before we can have
any understanding of what the Lord is telling us about being
holy, for I am holy. When our Lord prayed for his
church in John chapter 17, at verse 19, he said, for their
sakes, I sanctify myself. For the sake of my people,
I set myself apart. I make myself holy. I sanctify
myself unto the Father. I make myself an offering to
God. I make myself that way, that
they also may be truly sanctified through the truth. So the Lord
Jesus is telling us in his prayer to the father that he sanctified
himself in order that we might be sanctified and be made holy
before God. When the Lord is saying to his
children, let's go back to our text. Just as the dietary laws were
observed every single time a Jew sat down to eat, the Lord was
saying to them, remember what I have done in setting you apart. Remember that you're not like
the rest of the world. Remember who you are in Christ,
perfect before God. There's nothing that you can
do to earn that. There's nothing you can do to
merit that. I did that for you. The only
hope that you have of coming into the presence of God is the
accomplishment of the sacrifice that I made and sanctified myself
that you might be sanctified. We are sanctified once and for
all by the sacrifice that Christ made. Remember who you are. and be separate because you are separate. You are a royal priesthood. You are a holy nation. I've made you so. I've made you
holy. This is who you are. You can't
do anything to add to that and you can't do anything to take
away from it. And regardless of what you do
in your conversation, in your manner of living, you'll never
be able to change what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on
Calvary's cross in making his people holy before God. And to think otherwise, would
be to be under the law, not under grace. You're there in 1 Peter, turn
over to that verse I was just quoting in 1 Peter chapter two
at verse nine, but you are a chosen generation. I chose you. You
see, that's what the dietary laws were purposed to say to
those Jews every single time they sat down to eat. You are
a particular people, a peculiar people, a chosen people. You're
not like. I could have left you to yourself.
But I made a difference between the Israelites and the Egyptians.
I made you to differ. I made you holy. I separated
you out. You are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. Now every
one of us can be very peculiar sometimes, but that word peculiar
means purchased. That's what it means. You are
a purchased people. You've been bought with a price.
You are not your own. Your body is the temple of the
Holy Spirit. I bought you. You belong to me. This is who you are. That. You should show forth the praise
of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous
light, which in times past were not
a people. You didn't know God. You weren't
sanctified, not in your experience. But now through faith, you know
in your experience what Christ accomplished for you. but are now the people of God,
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. You're not gonna change that.
No behavior, no outward lifestyle is going to affect
that. Dearly beloved, In light of who
you are, in light of what Christ has done, I beseech you. So let the Lord say, I come along
beside you. I encourage you. Be strangers. You're not of this world. Yes,
you're in the world, but the world's not your home. Your world's
not your home. You're strangers in this world.
Be reminded of that. Every time you sit down to eat,
Be reminded that you're not of this world. The religion of this
world, the values of this world, the mores of this world, everything
in this world is contrary to God. And friendship with the
world is enmity with God. And we're not the enemies of
God. We were at enmity with Him, but He has reconciled us. I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, you're just passing through, you're only here for
a short period of time. Abstain from fleshly lusts which
war against the soul, having your conversation honest among
the Gentiles." Now here's what the Lord's saying. He is not saying you're going
to establish your holiness before God by your conversation. He's
not saying that. You're going to earn favor with
God or even that you're going to get assurance of your salvation
by your conversation. If you're looking to your conversation,
your manner of life as the evidence of your salvation, you're not
looking to Christ and you're not sure because you don't know
if you've done enough of it. But that having been said, here's
what the Lord's saying. Be holy because you are. You remember when Joseph was
tempted by Potiphar's wife to go to bed with her? And Joseph's
response to Potiphar's wife was, your husband, my master, has
given me rule of the entire house. I'm not just some menial servant. I'm the most trusted servant
that your husband has. I've got rule over everything.
He's given me the keys to everything. How could I abuse this privilege
that I have? How could I abuse this blessing
that I have? And how could I sin against my
God by doing such a thing? You see, it was Joseph being
reminded of who he was and what position he had that helped him. And brethren, the flip side of
that coin is David. who had an exalted position of
great honor as the king of Israel and didn't need to wait for a
woman to come tempt him. He went after her and all the
things that came into his life as a consequence of that. Now was Joseph's righteousness
improved by his resistance of sin? No. Was David's righteousness
diminished because of his failure to resist him? No. Turn with me to Titus, Titus
chapter 2. This truth is just repeated over
and over again in the scriptures. What's the Lord saying? You're
under grace. And this holiness that we have
in Christ, this exalted position that we have in Christ, this
hope of salvation that we have in Christ, is the very thing
that causes us to want to honor him and follow him and to see
what he has done in making us to be different from the world. Titus chapter 2, look at verse 11, for the grace
of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men. The
grace of God brings salvation, not the holiness of your conversation,
not the separation that you've made from the world. It's the
grace of God that brings salvation. Teaching us that denying ungodliness
and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and
godly in this present world. looking for that blessed hope.
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us
from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people,
a purchased people, zealous for good works. One more passage. Romans chapter
6. I've quoted from this passage
on several occasions, but let's understand a few verses in Romans
chapter 6. We'll begin reading at verse
8. Now if you'd be dead with Christ, When Christ died, if the death
of Christ is the hope that you have of being saved, it's your
only hope. You're not looking anywhere else.
You have no other place to go. We believe that we shall also
live with him. For in that he died, he died
once unto sin, He died unto sin once, but in that he liveth,
he liveth unto God. Likewise, likewise, reckon yourselves
also to be dead indeed unto sin. Child of God, say, oh, my sin
is ever before me. God says, this is your hope. Reckon yourself to be dead indeed
unto sin because you are. You are. Sin's been put away
completely. Reckon it to be so because it
is. but alive unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body that you should obey it and its lust thereof.
Neither yield to your members as instruments of unrighteousness
unto sin, but yield yourself unto God as those that are alive
from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God, for sin shall not have dominion over you. Why? Because
you are not under the law. The law looks to what you do
and don't do for your righteousness. You're not under that law. You're
under grace. You see, it's the grace of God. That is not just our righteousness
before God. But it's our hope. It's our hope. of being holy in all manner of
conversation. You're there in Romans, turn
over just a couple of pages to Romans chapter 14 and I'll close. Romans 14. Look at verse 17. For the kingdom of God, it's
not meat and drink. You want to eat creeping things?
No. You know, it's not meat and drink. It's not what goes into the mouth
that defiles a man. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy of the Holy
Ghost. That's the kingdom of God. Brethren, David said in Psalm 51, Michael,
you quoted this earlier when you did scripture reading. Lord,
return unto me the joy of thy salvation. Heal the bones that
you have broken. Isn't that what sin does for
us, child of God? Doesn't rob us of peace with
God. We have that. in Christ. But it sure robs us
of the peace of God. Robs us of our joy and our hope. That's what the Lord's saying.
Here's the only thing that's going to help you in the hour
of your temptation. The only thing that's going to
help you. You are holy. You're not going to change that.
You are holy. Therefore, therefore, be holy
in all manner of conversation. You're not under the law. You're
under grace. Isn't that glorious? That's what this sinner needs
to hear. Because this is something we
struggle with every day, isn't it? Every day. You try to fight
sin with the flesh. You try to fight it with a law,
you try to fight it with your determination and your strength
and you're gonna lose every time. You lose every time. But you're reminded by the Holy
Ghost that you are holy. Oh, who I am in Christ. It will, It will affect everything
that we do. Everything. They that are in
Christ are new creatures. Old things are all passed away.
All things have become new. Changes everything. Everything
about our lives. Our Heavenly Father, bless your
word. Forgive us. of our sin. Lord, we are so prone to go back
to the law. We're so prone to deny Christ
his glory and salvation and try to fix our problems. Forgive
us, Lord. Remind us that we are holy. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. 32 in the Sproul Hymnal. Let's stand
together, number 32. All children of wrath, in bondage
and sin, we helplessly lay, condemned and unclean. God's law in its
infinite justice and wrath demanded we suffer an eternal death. ? But long before time had ever
begun ? ? One stood in our place, God's glorious Son ? ? He offered
himself to go live among men ? ? And give his own life to
atone for our sin ? The great substitute, behold, he has come. The price has been paid. The work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood, and
he put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied And all who believe have been justified Through faith
in the blood of the Lamb we are free From sin's condemnation
eternally Please be seated.